Scottish surnames were fluid

by Earl McGee

While it does appear that MacTeer was directly associated with MacInyre, as this noteshttp://web.ncf.ca/cd200/mac31.html
spelling was fluid and McAtee apparently was a spelling variation of it. There are so many things besides whether records exist which get in the way of tracing family history very far into the past. Scottish surnames did not tend to settle into set patterns consistently until the 1600's. Then there is the whole thing about census records. I'd learned that census takers of the 1700's tended to record names they heard spoken phonetically, thus the variation. So, our name was recorded as Magee in 1 early census though in others it was McGee. 1 MacKay society noted that Mackay as pronounced way back when sounded like Magee. So, who knows if you're a McAtee, Michael, or a McGhie. Earl